49ers wary of espionage in Youngstown

This week, the 49ers are staying at the Holiday Inn just outside Youngstown, Ohio, and the area around their hotel is dotted by strip malls, fast-food joints and … spies?

On Wednesday, the team held its morning walkthrough practice in a parking lot behind the hotel, the same locale that they held walkthroughs last year. On Wednesday, however, four team buses were fanned out across the perimeter of the parking lot to discourage interested onlookers (including members of the Jets’ espionage team?)

Last week, Jim Harbaugh joked about having the parking lot, which abuts the Regal Cinema South 10 movie theater, secured. But he said the bus blockade was the brainchild of a member of the 49ers’ security personnel.

The 49ers’ practices are similarly clandestine operations, with the media excused after about the first 20 minutes, but Wednesday’s session at Youngstown State was notable in that the Cardinal Mooney High School football team was allowed to remain for the entire session.

Cardinal Mooney is the alma mater of 49ers CEO Jed York, which helps explain the special privilege. But even the Cardinals, Division III state champions in 2011, were eyed somewhat warily.

A Cardinal Mooney coach told the teenagers that players who took a cell-phone picture after the media was excused from practice would be kicked out of the stadium.

The 49ers are staying in Youngstown this week as they prepare for Sunday’s game at the Jets. It is the hometown of the DeBartolo family and 49ers CEO Jed York.